Follow these steps to calculate accounts receivable: Add up all charges. You'll want to add up all the amounts that customers owe the company for products and services that the company has already delivered to the customer. Find the average. Calculate net credit sales. Divide net credit sales by average accounts receivable.
A basic schedule of accounts receivable consists of at least three columns. These columns include the name of the account or customer with an outstanding balance, the balance total and the current balance or amount the customer still owes.
To forecast accounts receivable, divide DSO by 365 for a daily collection rate. Multiply this rate by your sales forecast to estimate future accounts receivable. This method helps predict the amount you can expect to receive over a specific period.
How to do sales forecasting in Excel: Step-by-step Create a new Excel worksheet. Open a new Excel spreadsheet and enter your historical data (sales over time). Create your forecast. Go to the Data tab and find the Forecast Sheet option. Adjust your sales forecast. View your ready sales forecast.
An autoregressive (AR) model forecasts future behavior based on past behavior data. This type of analysis is used when there is a correlation between the time series values and their preceding and succeeding values. Autoregressive modeling uses only past data to predict future behavior.
Here's a common formula for forecasting sales: Sales Forecast = (Last Month Revenue + Expected Growth – Expected Churn) DSO = (Accounts Receivable / Total Credit Sales) x Number of Days in the Period. Accounts Receivable Forecast = Days Sales Outstanding (DSO) x (Sales Forecast / Time)
The pro forma accounts receivable (A/R) balance can be determined by rearranging the formula from earlier. The forecasted accounts receivable balance is equal to the days sales outstanding (DSO) assumption divided by 365 days, multiplied by 365 days.
The accounts receivable turnover ratio is a simple metric used to measure a business's effectiveness at collecting debt and extending credit. It is calculated by dividing net credit sales by average accounts receivable. The higher the ratio, the better the business manages customer credit.
Quantitative methods tend to be more accurate than qualitative methods; however, they may fall short when unforeseen factors impact business performance. Therefore, it is advisable to use a combination of both qualitative and quantitative approaches for more reliable revenue forecasts.
By dividing DSO by 365 (the total number of days per year), you get a daily rate of how long it typically takes to collect a receivable. Multiplying this rate by your sales forecast gives you an estimated accounts receivable amount you can expect for that period.